Louvin Brothers

The Louvin Brothers were an American musical duo composed of brothers Ira Lonnie Loudermilk (1924–1965) and Charlie Elzer Loudermilk (1927–2011), better known as Ira and Charlie Louvin. The brothers are cousins to John D. Loudermilk, a Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member. Ira Louvin was notorious for his drinking, womanizing, and volcanic temper.[3] He was married four times; his third wife Faye shot him four times in the chest and twice in the hand after he allegedly tried to strangle her with a telephone cord Although seriously injured, he survived. When performing and drinking, Ira would sometimes become angry enough on stage to smash his mandolin when he was unable to tune it, and - when sober - glue it back together. His style was heavily influenced by Bill Monroe, and his brother Charlie, who had a tempestuous relationship with Ira, considered him one of the top mandolin players in Nashville"Ira Louvin was a full head taller than his younger brother, played the mandolin like Bill Monroe and sang in an impossibly high, tense, quivering tenor. Charlie strummed a guitar, grinned like a vaudevillian and handled the bottom register. But every so often, in the middle of a song, some hidden signal flashed and the brothers switched places — with Ira swooping down from the heights, and Charlie angling upward — and even the most careful listeners would lose track of which man was carrying the lead.In 1963, fed up with Ira's drinking and abusive behavior, Charlie started a solo career,and Ira also went on his own. Ira died on June 20, 1965, at the age of 41. He and his fourth wife, Anne Young, were on the way home from a performance in Kansas City when they came to a section of construction on Highway 70 outside of Williamsburg, Missouri where traffic had been reduced down to one lane. A drunken driver struck their car head-on, and both Ira and Anne were killed instantly.At the time, a warrant for Ira's arrest had been issued on a DUI charge. Charlie died of pancreatic cancer in January, 2011 at age 83. https://od.lk/fl/NjlfNzI2NDg3Xw